beccablog, teacher-librarian » advocacy

KASL Presentation, October 2009

beccablog — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:06:57 +0000

Presentation Notes from Friday, October 16, 2009

I presented using CoolIris and then uploaded to Slideshare. No audio this time. My colleague, Amanda Davis, led the Widgets presentation – I will post the link below as well. Look for “how-to’s” with widgets from Amanda soon!


Library 2.0
View more presentations from Blue Valley West High School.

Widgets http://prezi.com/ctt8owlrfx_f/

Links:

Library 2.0 Session

Widgets Session

Search Everything – Federated Searching

beccablog — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:13:52 +0000

Search Everything – Federated Searching

We recently launched Ebsco’s Integrated Search which is a type of federated searching that is affordable for us.

What do I like about it?

*Searches our sources from one spot – books and online

*Appears all on one page and since students are familiar with Ebsco, they are comfortable with the interace.

*Keywords – I will put this as a con too – but it really does make you work for a good search term. This can be frustrating for students – but putting in a broad term will make the search “messy”.

*Subject terms – Ebsco provides additional subject terms in the sidebar

*Once you do your search, you can then take out databases and search again.

What could be better?

*The title takes you to another page with an abstract inside Ebsco – but doesn’t take you directly to the article. Students are confused by this extra step.

*Interace is very busy – but that is the Ebsco look.

*Book section

Will it compete with Google? No, but what actually can? But I am always searching for a place that can provide great information that might capture student’s interest and impact how they do research.

We recently launched Ebsco’s Integrated Search which is a type of federated searching that is affordable for us.

What do I like about it?

*Searches our sources from one spot – books and online

*Appears all on one page and since students are familiar with Ebsco, they are comfortable with the interace.

*Keywords – I will put this as a con too – but it really does make you work for a good search term. This can be frustrating for students, but putting in a broad term will make the search “messy”.

*Subject terms – Ebsco provides additional subject terms in the sidebar.

*Once you do your search, you can then take out databases and search again.

What could be better?

*The title takes you to another page with an abstract inside Ebsco – but doesn’t take you directly to the article. Students are confused by this extra step.

*Interace is very busy – but that is the Ebsco look.

*Book section

Will it compete with Google? No, but what actually can? But I am always searching for a place that can provide great information that might capture student’s interest and impact how they do research.

Conferences – Quick Post

beccablog — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:36:37 +0000

Just a quick post as I get ready to complete the registration for our state conference in October. With economic constraints, going to conferences isn’t as easy as it used to be. I realize many people have felt the pull before this and I have been very lucky for many years to attend conferences that truly impacted my teaching. I think it is time for more conferences to go virtual or at least have a virtual component. I love the K12 Online Conference, beginning in December. In many ways, this is the best way to learn and interact. I was able see their examples, comment, rewind to see something again, take notes on my own computer, show other colleagues… the list could continue. Maybe something to bring up….

Annual Report 2009-10

beccablog — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:46:48 +0000

Annual Report for 2009-10

Our Annual Report highlights the various ways the LMC impacts students at Blue Valley West. We noted many positives, expressed areas of concern, and discussed progress on our SMART Goals.

We welcome any comments and suggestions to improve the report.

We Won!

beccablog — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:39:11 +0000

We won first place in the AASL I “Heart” 21st Century Skills contest. Thank you to those that voted for us!

Click here to see the website.

I Heart 21st Century Skills Contest

beccablog — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:59:54 +0000

Amanda and I created a short video for the I Heart 21st Century Skills Contest sponsored by AASL. The top three videos are posted on the following site along with a link to vote. If Youtube is blocked at your school (like mine), see our video below. Don’t forget to vote!!

A Library Provides an Opportunity

Top Ten Tools

beccablog — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:32:09 +0000

1. iGoogle: A great place for all my feeds. For students, they can easily customize the page for their needs AND place our widgets on the page.
2. Twitter: I receive so much information from Twitter. New ways to get information into the hands of students by posting on our website too. twitter/bvwlibrary      twitter/beccamunson
3. Google Reader: Makes my life easier. Would like students to use it more – but we are getting there.
4. Audacity: Great for student projects. Free. Easy to use.
5. Edublogs: We have several blogs – for students and staff. BVWest Reads, BVW Productions, BeccaBlog, Jag Stacks
6. Delicious:  Keeps me sane as I organize my finds and research what other people are doing. Next year, we are moving all our links for the library projects to delicious.
7. Voicethread:  A tool our teachers have really embraced especially our social studies teachers.
8. Widgetbox: Love this site to create widgets and apps for iGoogle and Facebook. However, it is now fee-based.
9. Slideshare: Collaborative. Takes a powerpoint inside the walls of the school and makes it available to anyone, anywhere. I think students get that…
10. Wikispaces: Way to publish projects, easily collaborate with others.

Others to add: Animoto, Toondoo, Wordle, iMovie, Voki, Ning

Click here for the real Top 10 List of Learning Professionals.

Update

beccablog — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:59:19 +0000

Just updated the library newsletter http://bvwlibrary.edublogs.org .

Twitter in Education – How?

Shout’Em

Neat Sites

Teacher Spotlight

Web site and advocacy

beccablog — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:30:23 +0000

I added a Twitter feed on the library web page. Why? Well, I was reading my blogline feeds today and saw a recent post from Hey Jude, a powerpoint from Nathan Wright and Hilary Brown discusses Library 2.0 . Although a lot of the information is directed to public libraries, the examples of how public libraries are using twitter stood out to me. The Wabaunsee Community College Todd Library not only includes quotes, links to helpful sources, but also usage statistics. How could this be used in the school library?

1. Post usage statistics in a way to get students to use the site (see current post) and to make others aware of the sources used most often.

2. Instead of shouting out, “this is the best source” or reminding students of a specific link – post it on the Twitter which then shows on the front web page.

3. When students set up an iGoogle account, have a twitter badge ready for them to post on their page – you can provide updates, new books, instructional information, etc. This one seems pretty easy to set up and if you have younger ages, you could provide a fun picture too.

I posted the code on our library web page, so students would easily see it. Hopefully, we will receive some feedback from students and evaluate the usefulness of this tool.

Now I need to ask myself if the site is too busy for the 21st century learner – or do they appreciate polls, librarything, wikis, gadgets, widgets, and other links…

First Semester Report

beccablog — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:02:02 +0000

Typically, we provide monthly reports to our administrators – we keep stats, count classes, and make copies. These go in their mailboxes until the next month. However, this year we changed to semester reports and added a new feature, assessed indicators. We looked at our KS State Reading Assessment tested indicators and noted each time we hit an indicator with a class. Our administrative team noticed this report – so we will carry on this new tradition.

1st Semester Report